Sunday, December 9, 2007

Although 2008 Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claims to be pro-labor and against the economic exploitation of U.S. working-class women, when her husband was the Governor of Arkansas during the 1980s and early 1990s, the former First Lady sat on the board of a corporation, Wal-Mart, that is notorious for exploiting its non-unionized women workers. As Liza Featherstone recalled in her 2004 book Selling Women Short:

“Her law firm represented Wal-Mart frequently, and she was a shareholder as well as the wife of the governor of Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is headquartered…In November 1986…Hillary Clinton became Wal-Mart’s first female board member, a position…for which she accepted $15,000 a year…Her hourly rate was about 156 times that of a female Wal-Mart worker…Senator Clinton would not comment on her work with Wal-Mart…

“Wal-Mart cannot be blamed on George W. Bush. The Arkansas-based company prospered under the state’s native son Bill Clinton when he was governor and president. Sam Walton and his wife, Helen, were close friends with the Clintons, and for several years, Hillary Clinton, whose corporate law firm represented Wal-Mart, served on the company’s board of directors. Bill Clinton’s `welfare reform’ has provided Wal-Mart with a ready workforce of women who have no choice but to accept the company’s poverty wages and discriminatory policies…”

Next: Hillary Clinton’s Previous White House Experience: May 1993 to July 1993